The Minister of National Defence, Mircea Duša, met with NATO Secretary GeneralJens Stoltenberg at the defence ministry HQ, Thursday, July 2. This is the first visit ofNATO Secretary General in Romania.

During their meeting, the two officials discussed topics high on the Alliance agenda,that were approached during last week’s defence ministerial in Brussels as well.Implementing NATO Readiness Action Plan, the long term Adaptation Measures with aview to the Summit in Warsaw of 2016 and Resolute Support mission in Afghanistanwere the main topics on the discussion agenda.

As to the progress in reviewing and optimizing NATO Response Force (NRF), ministerDuša pointed out that Romania will augment and improve its contribution to NRF, alsoby identifying forces and capabilities for NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force(VJTF).

Romania continues the implementation of measures for rendering operational NATOForce Integration Units (NFIU) in Bucharest thus meeting the responsabilities of ourcountry as Host Nation. We also have in mind the ambitious plan of putting at theAlliance’s disposal a Multinational Division (HQ MND SE), that will offer additionaloptions for conducting allied missions on NATO Eastern flank.

Further, Minister Duša emphasized the need to review defence budgets and considertheir increase. „Eventually, NATO credibility depends on the resources member stateshave, to ensure the military capabilities required by the complexity of the existingsecurity context. Romania is set firm on this track”, the Romanian official said.

As for the need of a long term strategic adaptation of the Alliance, the national defencesystem has already initiated an inter-institutional process of analysis of our owncontributions to this project. One of the proposals advanced in this respect was thatRomania should become a joint regional center for training and exercises in the South-Eastern region of NATO.

Both the Romanian Defence Minister and NATO Secretary General appreciated theprogress in consolidating the Afghan government structures of national unity and thesignificant progress in the way the Afghan security forces act. “Romania is the third largest contributor to Resolute Support mission from among theallies. The over 650 Romanian troops conduct missions in a large geographical area, inthe North, the center and the South”, the defence minister pointed out.

Starting from the parameters agreed upon for the mission in Afghanistan, minister Dušastressed out the need of an analysis of the time coordinates of NATO commitment in theregion as well as of the flexibility of our country to identify ways of covering thepossible deficits in the process of force generation.

The agenda includes a visit to the NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) in Bucharest,where the two officials will make press statements.